John D. Carpten, PhD, FAACR, to Join the AACR Board of Directors

PHILADELPHIA – The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) today announced that John D. Carpten, PhD, FAACR, has been elected by the members of the AACR to serve on the AACR Board of Directors. Carpten will hold the position previously held by Karen E. Knudsen, MBA, PhD, who is stepping down from the Board to fulfill her duties as the American Cancer Society’s new chief executive officer.

Carpten is a world-renowned expert in genome science who has made seminal contributions to the understanding of the role of biology in cancer disparities as well as to the field of precision cancer medicine. He is a tenured professor in and chair of the Department of Translational Genomics; the Royce and Mary Trotter Chair in Cancer Research; a professor in the Department of Urology; co-director of the Institute for Translational Genomics; director of the University of Southern California Molecular Genomics Core; program co-leader of the Translational and Clinical Sciences Program at Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center; and principal investigator at the CaRE2 Health Equity Center at Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

Carpten has been a member of the AACR since 2003 and was elected as a Fellow of the AACR Academy in 2021. He served as chair of the AACR’s Minorities in Cancer Research Council from 2020-2021, and has been a member of the Council since 2007. Carpten has served as chair of the AACR Special Conference: The Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved in 2007, 2009, 2013, and 2020.

Carpten has also been a member of the Scientific Advisory Board, AACR-MPM Transformative Cancer Research Grants (2019-2022); chair of the Steering Committee for the inaugural AACR Cancer Disparities Progress Report (2019-2020); chair (2018-2019), cochair (2014-2017), and member (2007-2008) of the AACR Annual Meeting Program Committee; chair of the Think Tank on Cancer Health Disparities (2018); member of the Publications Committee (2016-2019); member of the Clinical Cancer Research Committee (2009-2012); member of the AACR-Minorities in Cancer Research Jane Cooke Wright Lectureship Committee (2009-2010); member of the Cancer Epigenome Task Force (2007-2010); and member of the Research Grant Review Committee (2005-2007). He was a senior editor for the AACR journal Cancer Research from 2012-2016. Carpten has also served as a member of the Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) Scientific Advisory Committee since 2020; the AACR is the Scientific Partner of SU2C.

Among many other honors and awards, Carpten has previously received the AACR-Minorities in Cancer Research Jane Cooke Wright Lectureship (2018) and the AACR Distinguished Lectureship on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities (2014).

Carpten will serve on the AACR Board of Directors until 2022.